What is the PRRA?

In Chelmsford, Massachusetts, parents were outraged when their children were exposed to a "demonstration" sex education class called "Hot, Sexy and Safer." In the East Stroudsburg School District in Pennsylvania parents were recently horrified to learn that their daughters were subjected to an intrusive genital examination at school. The list could go on and on... No one can dispute that parental rights are under attack in America.

One proposed legislative solution to this crisis is the Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act (PRRA) -- S. 984 and H.R. 1946. This bill was authored by Michael Farris of Home School Legal Defense Association. A nationwide lobbying effort was launched for the bill by the Christian conservative community. The original versions of this bill have been changed. However, the PRRA still includes language that gives the State a right to assert a "compelling interest" over the lives our our children.

The entire March 1996 edition of The Christian Conscience magazine is devoted solely to a comprehensive analysis of the PRRA against the backdrop of the massive education reform agenda -- an agenda which is already digging its tentacles deep into family life in America, severing parental rights in ways that most parents have never imagined. Because the PRRA does not address this "back door" erosion of parental rights, it is our contention that the bill is fatally flawed, and could potentially backfire in ways that might harm children and families.

The current status of the PRRA is: It has passed out of Senate Subcommittee and now moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee. The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are Senators Hatch, Thurmond, Simpson, Grassley, Specter, Brown, Thompson, Kyle, DeWine, Abraham, Biden, Kennedy, Leahy, Heflin, Simon, Kohl, Feinstein, and Feingold.